elcee

I'm not sure about this poster.
I am sure I have read an almost identical post somewhere before.It seems as though this has been copied and just tweaked a bit but I could be wrong.
Just something seems slightly strange but maybe it's just the cynic in me coming out.

I'm not sure about this poster.
I am sure I have read an almost identical post somewhere before.It seems as though this has been copied and just tweaked a bit but I could be wrong.
Just something seems slightly strange but maybe it's just the cynic in me coming out.

The question is :- if you couldn't stick to the preop diet how will you manage to stick to the postop diet? If you decide postop that it is just too hard or that you will substitute something you run the risk of doing a lot of damage. I would be more worried that you are not ready and committed to make the change that the surgery requires than I would be about the liver. You have to realise that the band is a tool that works when you work with it.
I would take a good hard deep look at myself and work out what I wanted and if I was in fact ready.

If you have been dieting for a long time you may recall that all diets used to have a 1000 cal (4200KJ) per day limit. They then changed to 1200 cal and only recently it seems has a 1500 cal recommendation come in. For many , especially females that are short 1500 cal is way too much for weight loss. This would be closer to a maintenance level.
I have tried high Protein previously and have never been able to stick at it for more than a couple of days. I would think that it is perfectly possible to gain on a high Protein diet. Some people take it as a licence to gorge. If you are eating masses of cream, butter , fat , fried foods then I am sure weight loss will not be automatic. In theory it should be but theories don't always work which is why they are theories.

There is another side of this as well.
Now that I have "come out of the closet" about my surgery I feel that I have to maintain. ( I haven't told everyone but amongst those I have told a few know someone that has had it done and failed). To gain back any weight would just prove the theory that so many have that WLS doesn't work. I have heard so many negative comments about how surgery doesn't work, or how after 5 years you put all your weight back on, or how someone had surgery and didn't lose etc that I feel I have to prove that it can and does work.
Those people that have had a friend that failed with it also now know that the weight loss is not automatic. That there has to be some kind of effort on your part and that if there is then you reap the rewards.
I am now 2 years 5 months out. I am hoping that I can maintain so that at 5 years out I am still a success and can prove all the naysayers wrong.

My husband baked the yummiest muffins about a week after I was banded - they smelt divine - I could have happily killed him. But as the others have said you are responsible for what you put in your mouth and I also agree that you should be doing the shopping or at the very least give your husband a list. Keep a supply of crystal light or something similar at home for when he drinks soda. And who says that you can't eat out/ having a band doesn't stop you doing that. Go to restaurants, pick something that you know you can eat and is a healthy (or healthier) option . And don't forget the 80/20 or 90/10 rule. No one expects you to be a dieting saint 100% of the time - the occasional treat helps makes life pleasurable.

OMG
Now we have the Lap Band police.
Please , regurgitating food with the band is not a huge problem as long as it is not something that you do regularly. Your Dr's tell you that there are certain foods that may not agree with your band. Well what the heck do you think happens when you have a band and you eat something that isn't going to go down - yep you bring it back up. And no I will not say vomit it up because it isn't vomiting, that is totally different. Most Dr's gloss over exactly what happens because I am sure they are trying not to put people off prior to surgery.
If you are vomiting then yes that can cause your band to slip. Vomiting comes from beneath the band, and is usually associated with quite a bit of force.
Regurgitating the food is like when you have too much phlegm and you have to cough and then spit it up. Seriously this is not going to make your band slip.

My husband baked the yummiest muffins about a week after I was banded - they smelt divine - I could have happily killed him. But as the others have said you are responsible for what you put in your mouth and I also agree that you should be doing the shopping or at the very least give your husband a list. Keep a supply of crystal light or something similar at home for when he drinks soda. And who says that you can't eat out/ having a band doesn't stop you doing that. Go to restaurants, pick something that you know you can eat and is a healthy (or healthier) option . And don't forget the 80/20 or 90/10 rule. No one expects you to be a dieting saint 100% of the time - the occasional treat helps makes life pleasurable.

Also if you ate 1000 calories per day of twix you would still be hungry.That would be just over 3 bars per day. 1 for Breakfast, lunch and dinner. Even with a band that would slide through really easily and you would be looking for something to satisfy you. If you eat 1000 calories per day of foods your Dr has told you to eat, Protein, vegies etc then you will be satisfied as those foods have a lot more substance, they satisfy you for longer and you won't have the urge to eat as much .
So if you can stick to eating 3 twix bars a day and nothing else yes you will lose weight.
No you won't be healthy.
Yes you will be hungry.
No your band won't help to suppress the hunger as this is not the way it is designed to be used. It would be like buying a chainsaw and trying to chop a tree down without switching it on. A complete waste of time and money.

The mind boggles? Is this question for real?
What worries me is that if someone can ask questions like this it would seem that they know very little about the band. I would be doing a lot more research to make sure I understood what the band is and where it goes before having surgery.
To answer:
The band is inside your body around the top part of your stomach.You cannot feel it once it is there. I cannot by any stretch of the imagination figure out how someone could imagine it could get in the way orally. Even having toured the sex museum in Amsterdam and seen all the strange stuff there I don't know what kind of sex a person would be having for that to happen.
Your port you can feel through your skin if you are trying to. It feels like a hard lump. It doesn't interfere with sex at all.

The mind boggles? Is this question for real?
What worries me is that if someone can ask questions like this it would seem that they know very little about the band. I would be doing a lot more research to make sure I understood what the band is and where it goes before having surgery.
To answer:
The band is inside your body around the top part of your stomach.You cannot feel it once it is there. I cannot by any stretch of the imagination figure out how someone could imagine it could get in the way orally. Even having toured the sex museum in Amsterdam and seen all the strange stuff there I don't know what kind of sex a person would be having for that to happen.
Your port you can feel through your skin if you are trying to. It feels like a hard lump. It doesn't interfere with sex at all.

The reason they are telling you a Former Fat Person to be on liquids is so that your stomach can heal from the major surgery that you have had. If you don't stick to the post op diet you may do damage which could lead to your band slipping, not now but at some point in the future. Yes it's hard, we all know that, we've been there too but the diet is there for a reason. If you are struggling drink more often, drink thicker liquids. I made lots of homemade Soup with things like vegies and chickpeas, lentils or Beans for extra Protein and blended them to the right consistency. They were very satisfying. Remember the 2 weeks are only a very short time they will soon be over.
You can do this.
At this point your motivation should be really high which should also help to get you through.(if you can't follow your Dr's instructions now then you might not end up being a Former Fat Person).

Juicy
My apologies that your thread appears to have been hijacked. Here is hoping that some other people will attempt to answer some of your original queries. I am sure when you posted your original query you were hoping for some more supportive helpful answers.
As for Dr Sanction who has been in the medical field for 25 years...................(If that is the case I would have expected the information that you posted to support your argument would have come from a more scientific source - not one of the first sites that comes up when googling this question).
As you obviously have far superior knowledge to the rest of us will you please explain what the point of Allergan producing different sized bands was? Also people are different sizes, as far as I am aware that means there are going to be variations in the size of their organs. We have babies, children, adults. Presumably organs grow as we as progress from birth to adulthood - at what point does the stomach reach its "one size fits all" stage? Even when you reach adulthood people vary dramatically in size. I am female and 5' - there are people who reach 7' and over. I am stunned and gobsmacked to discover that we all have the same size organs.
Wow - that is amazing.

sanction I hate to tell you that not everyone has the same size organs and this has nothing to do with how obese a person may or may not be.
Why do you think Allergan decided to make bands in different sizes? If everyone is the same inside there would be no point in them wasting money producing different sized products. I am sure that the reason behind the different sizes was based on very thorough research.
to quote
The.LAP-BAND.AP®.System.is.available.in.two.sizes,.Standard. and.Large...The.physician.should.choose.the.appropriate. size.depending.upon.the.patient’s.individual.anatomy...Most. patients.with.correctly.fitted.bands.report.minimal,.if.any,. restriction.following.resolution.post-operative.edema.until. saline.is.added.to.the.band,.regardless.of.band.size..The.Large. band.is.normally.used.for.re-operations.(particularly.conversion. from.other.procedures).and.the.pars.flaccida.dissection.. Surgeons.are.advised.to.evaluate.the.amount.of.tissue.within. the.band.prior.to.band.locking.and.suturing.in.place,.and,.if.it. appears.excessive,.to.remove.some.omental.tissue.or.move.the. dissection.closer.to.the.stomach.wall.or.higher.on.the.stomach.. Additional.information.regarding.size.selection.is.provided.in. the.training.program.

It is actually quite common for the band to be too tight if Fluid is inserted at the time of surgery. The fluid combined with postop swelling is for many people a really bad combination. There have been many people on this site that have posted wishing they had never been banded as they had just had surgery and couldn't eat/drink etc. When they went to their Drs many of them had had fluid inserted during surgery and this was the cause of their problems.
Now that yours has been taken out hope you start feeling better . You can heal first and concentrate on getting fills and losing a little later.

Yet another person that has decided to go against their Dr's instructions and then come here looking for approval/validation. What is there to say that hasn't been said before............................................
NOTHING

Yet another person that has decided to go against their Dr's instructions and then come here looking for approval/validation. What is there to say that hasn't been said before............................................
NOTHING

That is a pretty standard post op regime.It's hard but it's doable. If you want to start progressing ahead of schedule you should be asking your Dr not looking for approval on a website! Whatever your Dr says is what you should do.

I would love to know how having been obese for a while makes your bones heavier?
There is a lot of scope within a normal BMI. There is no way that at the top end of that range that a person would look skinny, gaunt or like a starving refugee!
You have to aim for a couple of things.
A weight that is healthy.
A weight that makes you happy.
A weight that makes you look good.
Having said that though to not aim for a normal BMI after going through the process of being banded is selling yourself short - I think fear is what keeps many people from achieving this goal. I believe that a lot of the people that say they will be too skinny don't really think or feel that - they just don't think that they will be able to achieve it.
Mimi , you are the same height as me - I am sure that you can get to your goal. Rest assured that maintaining with a band is really a lot easier than you think. I have been on an extended overseas holiday where I didn't worry too much about what I was eating. I came home weighing the same as when I left. Yes my weight does fluctuate but not much. It seems to go up and down within a 1kg(2.2lb) range.

I am an Atheist. I am used to being excluded. Look...we don't even have our own thread. What about people like me who don't get comfort through faith, but science and reason? Where is our support?
The last thing we can ever do is turn on each other, regardless of faith or (in my case) lack of faith. So...Mormon, Catholic, Jew, Atheist....aren't we all in the same battle for our health? Let's stick together! I think that's something we can all agree on

Found the link. I think this gives a really good visual.
For some people maybe drinking with meals doesn't affect how soon they get hungry afterwards , either that or they have the will power to only eat what they are supposed to and then not eat again till the next meal. But for those of you who are struggling you may want to watch this and then start following this rule. Lack of success may be due to some as simple as not following what for many is a basic rule.

You know, I imagine what I say is not going to sound super sensitive and supportive, etc. However, after reading so many posts like yours, I have to get this off my chest. My husband, when I met him, couldnt be PAID to eat vegetables. Now he is on the Atkins diet and has lost a lot of weight, largely due to the fact that though he doesnt LIKE vegetables and he is PICKY, he sucked it up and ate them because it is and was more important to him to eat healthy (even if he didnt like the way it tasted at the beginning) than to be fat, unhealthy, not be able to enjoy our children and possibly die at a younger age from weight related medical issues. He is still experimenting to find ways to make them as tasty as possible for him and he SUCKS IT UP. Sure, we would all prefer that healthy foods taste like chocolate and Cookies, but the fact is, they don't. So if you went to the trouble to get banded, you must have realized that you were not having a magical weight loss machine put into you which would suddenly make the weight melt off you without any work. You don't mention at all about how you exercise at least 3 times a week and have limited your portions. All you say is that you are the same weight now as you were 3 years ago. That tells me that you think the band will do all the work for you. You need to go back to your doctor (I imagine you havent been to him/her in a long time) and work as a team to make the band work WITH you, not FOR you. You need to get in your kitchen with those foods that are good for you and a bunch of cookbooks and experiment until you find a way to eat those foods prepared in a healthy way that you can tolerate. You need to drop the self pity and realize that obesity is a disease and you carry inside yourself a GIFT. Don't squander it just because it hasn't lived up to your expectations. Make it work for you and your future.

Even though this is a few months old I would like to say, I got banded for vanity reasons only. I was perfectly healthy but obese. I was tired of being fat. Why should the band be reserved for "health reasons only"? Why should you wait until you are sick or morbidly obese before you seek intervention? And finding a surgeon who will do low BMI is not difficult.

Wow, you are sure a bitter person....your aura tells me you probably never worked the band and lie to yourself about your food intake....I can't very well wish you luck, but I do wish you peace.
Mimi

I have been told by my original surgeon's practice and the new one that I have seen that the food does not stay in the pouch for as long as it was originally thought - that it actually passes through quite quickly.
This makes sense to me if we consider how quickly we feel stuck. I could never understand how if the food was supposed to sit there for a while why it hurt so much when you take too big a bite or whatever.
But it does not explain how it creates the sensation of fullness. I have read somewhere that it is something to do with pressure on the vagus nerve which the band helps to create but I can't remember where I read it or what the exact explanation was.
Also if the food does pass through so quickly then how is it possible to slime and PB food back up for so long afterwards when you get stuck.Surely only the stuck bite should come back not all the ones before it????
It seems that there is a lot about the way that the band works that is not yet fully understood. However I think this is true of many medical things.Yes I would love to know how and why it works but for me it is more important that it DOES work.